Under fire Indian spinners aim to improve in 2nd Test vs. England

The pitch at the ACA-VDCA ground is expected to be a rank turner that will test the visiting side's batting unit big time.

 

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Test skipper Virat Kohli expressed his displeasure about the Rajkot strip where Indian spinners got a total nine wickets with four English batsmen scoring hundreds.

 

Questions are being raised about Ravichandran Ashwin's ability to get wickets on a good track after finishing with underwhelming match figures of 3 for 230.

 

Veteran opener Gautam Gambhir's place in the side is also under scanner after his poor show in the first Test. Now that young KL Rahul has been fast-tracked into the side in the wake of his good show on his Ranji comeback, the Delhi southpaw will certainly be on tenterhooks.

 

As the battle is expected to boil down to the spinners, it will be interesting whether Kohli wants an extra batsman or an all-rounder in the playing XI.

 

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Fielding is another area where the Indians would like to improve after their dropped catches in the opening match.

 

It was widely attributed that India will come out all guns blazing against the embattled England especially after their embarrassing first-ever defeat in Bangladesh about two weeks ago.

 

Despite the drawn result, four of England's batsmen got centuries and spinners had a larger share of 13 wickets, Alastair Cook and Co. have shown that they will not be pushovers unlike New Zealand, who were whitewashed 3-0 in the last series.

 

The famed Indian spinners did not dominate in Rajkot where the battle was won by the England troika of Moeen Ali, Zafar Ansari and leg-spinner Adil Rashid who returned with a match haul of seven wickets.

 

Head coach Anil Kumble, however, defended their spinners who did not get much turn in Rajkot.

 

"Just because they got more wickets than our spinners doesn't mean we will be at a loss but that's what I am saying that we batted 160 overs. We will make our strategy based on the pitch we get; we will select the team accordingly. We play to take 20 wickets and win matches. Whatever wicket we get, we will play on that," Kumble said.